Before I can jump in, Anna bolts up, her face hardening. “Don’t you dare insult my daughter. She’s the best there is.”
I heartily agree. Since Anna’s holding her own, I simply cross my arms so they can get a good look at the size of them, providing my looming presence.
From my side, I sense movement.
Victoria pushes to her feet, and the unshed tears glistening in her eyes catapult my anger to the next level.
“It doesn’t matter what I do for a living,” she says, and I’m thinking that’s right, baby, you tell them.
“I’ve earned everything on my own, all my life, and I’m perfectly fine with that.” Her lips purse into a firm, immovable line. “Actually, strike that, I’m proud.”
I stretch out my fingers to let her know I’m there. While I meant to provide her comfort, it floods me as she takes my hand and laces our fingers together.
“But you, Jade,” she continues, not a single crack or tremble to her voice, and I’m so damn proud. “Going after the guy I threw away-does that really make you feel good about yourself?”
An enraged fire lights Jade’s eyes, and I’d pull Victoria behind me if there wasn’t a booth and bolted-down table in the way.
“Do you even hear yourself? Stop making baseless accusations to make yourself feel better. Carl and I are together because we love each other. You’re just bitter because he never truly loved you, and now you want to play the victim.”
Victim is the last word I’d use to describe Victoria. It’s a too-accurate description for how her aunt and her cousin treat her, however, and they can fuck right off.
As if he’d forgotten until Jade pointed it out, Carl hauls her to him for an over-the-top display of affection. With a sloppy kiss and a grope that’s inappropriate for the public setting, his focus isn’t even on his fiancée.
Nope, he aims it all on my fiancée as he adds. “The only women I love are women like Jade.”
What, vapid social climbers with the charm of a car alarm that goes off at 3 a.m.?
Victoria’s shoulders sag as she lets out a weary sigh. “I should have seen through your disgusting façade earlier. When I stop and think about it, I hadn’t been happy in a long time, but I didn’t think it was worth throwing our entire history away. What’s even sadder is, I almost settled for that.”
Jade snorts. “Sure, keep telling yourself that. What does your fiancé do anyway? He’s not another homeless guy from New York, is he? You do seem to love those guys, and hey, maybe you could get one of them to actually stay.”
Her cackle conveys she thinks she’s extremely clever. I’d like to wipe the floor with her and her no-good sleaze bucket.
Only in Carl’s wildest dreams could he ever deserve someone as incredible as Victoria.
The fact that he ever got to touch her in the first place has me daydreaming about breaking each one of his fingers.
“Wait a minute.” Suddenly, Jade does a double take in my direction before stepping directly across from me, her brow creasing as she studies me extra closely. “You look really familiar.”
My features slacken, and I stop breathing as though that’ll change a single thing about my appearance. I don’t like it, whatever she’s doing, and I’m about to signal for management so we can at least eat the rest of our meal in peace.
But then a slow, gleeful grin spreads across her face. There’s a wicked gleam in gray-blue eyes as dingy as her rotten soul. “Oh my gosh, it’s him! From outside the burger restaurant. Victoria, you’re literally marrying a homeless guy?”
Simon
I hear Anna’s gasp, and I swear the clatter of silverware against plates comes to a pronounced stop.
As though the entire restaurant has tuned into our unfolding soap opera and can’t wait to see what happens next.
We’ve at least got the attention of the tables nearest us and then some.
“What does she mean, ‘ homeless guy,
‘ Victoria? Is Simon homeless?” Anna asks her daughter, and so much for impressing my future mother-in-law.
Then again, it’s why I’ve held my cards close to my chest. I wanted them to be impressed with me as a person, not who I am and how much money is in my bank account.
I guess the Ferrari isn’t a great way to keep up that ruse, so that’s on me. But my uncle was similar to these parasitic family members of Victoria’s. And I refuse to sit back and watch without doing anything about it.
Within a couple of taps on my phone, I’ve sent off a text. I just hope I can pull it off in time.
Jade, evidently sensing this is the perfect moment to land her final blow, whips out her phone as I’m sliding mine back in my pocket. “I have proof.”
With a theatrical flip of her wrist and swipe of her thumb, she finds whatever she’s searching for. A smirk curves her garish mouth, the bright shade of lipstick trying way too hard as she turns the screen to show everybody else.
“See that?” Triumphant, she sneers and shoves her phone another inch closer. “Victoria here, plucked her vagrant fiancé off the streets. I told you he was homeless!”
Sure enough, it’s a grainy photo of me:
Hunched over a New York sidewalk wearing tattered clothes, I’m almost unrecognizable beneath my long tangle of hair and scraggly beard. Within a month or so, they’d both done an excellent job at obscuring my features.
But more than anything, I learned that most people don’t look at you when you live on the streets. They don’t want to see or attempt to relate. Before my experience, I’d been a little too guilty of the same thing.
It’s what drew me to Victoria in the first place. Regardless of a person’s situation, she saw them all the same. As a person who deserved generosity and respect. A warm meal in their belly and a smile from a beautiful woman who looks you directly in the eyes.
Her cousin, on the other hand, went out of her way to snap a picture of someone she thought of as vulnerable and lesser than.
Can’t say I’m surprised, yet it pisses me off all the same.
Through my introspection, I vaguely register that Linda’s recoiled in horror. “Jesus, Victoria!
“Are you really so desperate that you’re marrying a hobo, not a care for how it reflects on the family?” A hand flies to her chest, and if she had any pearls around her neck, she’d be clutching them. “Anna, is this how you raised your daughter?”
Anna appears utterly gobsmacked and a pinch lost.
Guilt churns through me, forming a rock in my gut. I never wanted any of this to happen-my intention was to help.
She twists toward her daughter and asks, concern underlying her words, “Victoria, is this true?”
“I told you, Victoria.” Carl puffs out his chest, highlighting his lack of pec muscles and how full of hot air he is. “I knew I was the best you could ever get. The waitress and the homeless man-what a perfect match.”
Jade’s caustic laugh rankles my nerves and clenches my fists. “So the Ferrari was a lie too, huh? I bet he’s just flashing some random key he found in the trash. How pathetic, playing normal for a day.”
“This is why I didn’t want my brother to marry you,” Linda says to Anna, shaking her head with mock pity, as if she finds everything about her tragic. “I can’t believe I’m related to someone like you.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.